Before and After

The plum tree decided that it's time for autumn colours.

I had to let it know that this is California, we don't do that here.

I may have to repeat this lesson a few times.

Dirty Power

My trail bike, Crimson Ghost, has been serving me well, but unlike almost all my other bikes it doesn't have a power meter.

This isn't really a big deal, since trail bike riding isn't really about how much power I'm laying down, as compared with cross country, gravel or road riding. It's just about getting up the ups and down the downs at a fun pace.

But still, having a power meter is really nice for being able to pace myself on those uphills, and it integrates with my fitness tracking apps way better when the power data is available. Over time I was finding that those factors were giving me just a little bit of a nudge away from riding this bike as often as I should, so I figured it was high time to correct this deficiency.

This is a spider-based power meter, which means that it bolts up to the cranks, and then the chainring, which drives the chain, gets bolted to it. By measuring the torque through the unit and multiplying that with how fast it's spinning, it produces a reading for how many watts of power are flowing through it.

And this model bolts straight up to the Raceface cranks that I already have installed, so I don't need to buy a whole new crankset at the same time, which is nice.That saves me some money on top of this being a budget Chinese power meter.

So we just need to get the direct-mount chainring off, in this case using my bottom bracket spline tool.

Which should be in my toolbox here...

Hmm, or perhaps it's in my other toolbox.

There we go, back where it should be.

This style of tool is designed to be turned by a wrench or ratchet, but it's actually a lot easier to use it by sticking it in a vise and turning the crankset instead.

And with a few love taps with a soft blow hammer, the chainring is off.

And then the process is reversed to mount the power meter spider.

This technique of holding a tool in the vise is also very helpful when installing the chainring bolts, since they use a 6mm hex on one side and a 4mm hex on the other.

It's like having an extra hand to hold onto things, which is always helpful.

And then there's nothing left to do but put it back on the bike.

And since I moved up to a 32t chainring from the 30t that was on there before (32t is generally the smallest you can go on this size of crank spider), I need to give the derailleur a quick b-screw adjustment.

And, naturally, take a glamour shot.

And then go out and ride it, I guess.

Happily, I can report that the power meter does indeed work. Upgrade success!

For Whom The Bell Tolls

When riding a bicycle on the roads, the most important piece of safety gear you can equip, after a helmet of course, is a rear light. When riding a bicycle off the roads, though, a bell is much more important as it helps keep at least some pedestrians from wandering directly into your path.

Most bells require manual activation though, which can make them a bit inconvenient to use. You could alternately strap on some trail bells, but those ring constantly whether you need them or not, which also isn't ideal. What you really want is a trail bell that you can switch on and off at will.

So it's a good thing they make them.

I've already equipped this bell on all of my mountain bikes, but I hesitated to add one to my gravel bike because of some mounting issues. First off, unless the bar clamp hinged open, I'd have to remove the bar tape and brake lever to even be able to put the bell on in the first place.

But the updated version solves that problem.

I'd also have to worry about the clamp being too thick such that it would interfere with the brake hoses.

But the thin section on the back of the mount takes care of that too, so long as I orient it in a slightly peculiar manner.

Thankfully the bell doesn't interfere with my garmin mount in this orientation, nor does it strike the top tube if I turn the bars too far to one side.

And the switch to turn it on and off is still conveniently accessible.

So the new model has checked all the boxes and is good to go. I am pleased.

And yes, my bike is a little bit dirty. It gets like that when I ride it off road.

Getting Canned

It's that time of year again, the time when I'm almost out of giardiniera and have to cook up a fresh new batch.

I ended up buying too many carrots. I mean I only bought four of them but they were apparently a half pound each. Since I need to cook up a batch of pot pies next week, I just set two of them aside to use for that, and also the second onion I had bought just in case I needed it (which I did not).

As you can see it looks pretty much the same as the batch I cooked up in February, although I think I used a red onion for that batch instead of the yellow onion I used this time. I don't think it made a huge difference to the actual flavour since the vinegar kind of takes center stage in this recipe.

I go through about one jar every two weeks, so I think I should be set for another good while.

It's kind of funny how I always forget how easy it is to make this. Like, you chop up the veggies, let it sit in a brine overnight, rinse them off and pack them in the jars with the spices, then fill with the pickling brine and boil them up in the canner. Hardly any work at all.

Strip Show

Who would have ever thought I'd be stripping in public? Weatherstripping, that is.

The main entry doors to the house are fairly weathertight, but there's a door leading to the furnace dungeon that isn't so much, and the furnace dungeon is open to both the attic and crawlspace.

I'm not really concerned about losing conditioned air, since this is California and the only difference between inside and outside is how much sun you get. However, I am a bit more concerned about keeping stanky crawl space air out of my house, so let's get to sealing things up.

As we can see there's no weatherstripping here currently, though I may have taken off the remnants of some back when I moved in. I recall getting rid of some here and there that was in basically useless condition, before painting the trim.

But now the weather is stripped.

The door leading out to the car hole is also notably drafty, so it's up next.

I don't want car hole stank getting in through this gap.

I'm only doing the latch side on this door, since the hinge side is pretty tight, and this door slab is a bit warped in spots. Like across the top, where there's no gap at all.

Of course, I also have only enough left of the first roll to do exactly the latch side of this door, which might also be a factor.

I'm eventually going to replace this whole door, but that can come much later. In the meantime, the gap is filled.

Or, well, mostly filled. Did I mention that the door slab is warped?

It's better than it was, at least.

I ended up using the last little strip to put on my bedroom door to keep it from rattling against the stops. Not sure yet what I'll do with the other two rolls, but I'm sure I'll figure out some use for them.

Not a Console Peasant

One of the advantages of being a member of the PC master race is that I'm not beholden to the whims of Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony if I want more performance out of my video game experience. I can upgrade my PC whenever I please.

And "whenever I please" last happened around 2013 or so. It's been a while. Let's change that.

The AMD Radeon RX-7800-XT was released about a year ago, and strikes a decent balance between price and performance. It's also available in a 2-fan formfactor which is shorter than some of the top end graphics cards. This is important for me, as my well traveled Antec Sonata case can only fit about 11 inches of graphics card, and this XFX SWFT 210 trims away all its vowels to conveniently land at about 11 inches.

I also decided to upgrade my RAM as well, partly because having 16G of RAM feels weird when I'm about to install a 16G graphics card.

Do I really need the extra RAM? No. Is it hilariously cheap? Yes.

Anyway, let's crack open the case. As we can see here, there's about 11-1/2 inches of space before we hit the drive bay mounting rails.

And getting an 11 inch card in and out of here is... a task.

I got a lot of miles out of this old card, let me tell you.

But with that cleared out of the way, there's lots of room now to get the new RAM sticks installed.

And then we get to the best part.

Oh yeah, that's worth every penny.

But this is about where I ran into a teensy, tiny little issue. You see, you remember when I said I had 11-1/2 inches of space before hitting the drive bays? Well, that's 11-1/2 inches from the back of the case, not from the IO panel, which is apparently where these cards are measured from. When measuring there, I get 11 inches even, and the old card fits with just a whisker of space to spare.

10-7/8 inches is a bit of a squeeze, but clearance is clearance.

However, remember when I said the new card is about 11 inches long? Well it turns out that it's 11-1/8 inches long, and that 3/4 of a barleycorn difference pushes things from "fits" to "not fits".

So that leaves me with a conundrum. I could buy a new case, but it's such a bother digging all the gubbins out of the old one and bolting things up to the new one, plus it's money I don't really want to spend. And well, no amount of wishful thinking, hare-brained ideas or cockamamie scheming is going to just magically make the card fit.

So that leaves me with only one logical choice: pack the card up and return it for a refund.

The thought of having to send this card back is as frustrating as it is disappointing, but part of being a mature, responsible adult is recognizing when things aren't going to plan and cutting your losses before you get in over your head.

And this is just one of those times when I'm not going to win, I just have to accept that the universe has had the last laugh and not every story has a happy ending.

Ah well, it was a beautiful dream, even if it was never meant to be.